e Circus, and elsewhere about
the city. The terror which legitimately followed from the actual perils
was heightened by imaginary fears. It was thought that the Mons Casius,
which towers above Antioch to the south-west, was about to be shattered
by the violence of the shocks, and to precipitate itself upon the ruined
town.

Nor were the horrors of the catastrophe confined to Antioch. The
earthquake was one of a series which carried destruction and devastation
through the greater part of the East. In the Roman province of Asia,
four cities were completely destroyed--Eleia, Myrina, Pitane, and Cyme.
In Greece two towns were reduced to ruins, namely, Opus in Locris, and
Oritus. In Galatia three cities, unnamed, suffered the same fate. It
seemed as if Providence had determined that the new glories which Rome
was gaining by the triumphs of her arms should be obscured by calamities
of a kind that no human power could avert or control, and that despite
the efforts of Trajan to make his reign a time of success and splendor,
it should go down to posterity as one of gloom, suffering, and disaster.

Trajan, however, did not allow himself to be diverted from the objects
that he had set before him by such trifling matters as the sufferings of
a certain number of provincial towns. With the approach of spring (A.D.
116) he was up and doing. His officers had obeyed his orders, and a
fleet had been built at Nisibis during the winter amply sufficient for
the purpose for which it was wanted. The ships were so constructed that
they could be easily taken to pieces and put together again. Trajan had
them conveyed on wagons to the Tigris at Jezireh, and there proceeded
to make preparations for passing the river and attacking Adiabene.
By embarking on board some of his ships companies of heavy-armed
and archers, who protected his working parties, and at the same time
threatening with other ships to cross at many different points, he was
able, though with much difficulty, to bridge the stream in the face of
a powerful body of the enemy, and to land his troops safely on the
opposite bank. This done, his work was more than half accomplished.
Chosroes remained aloof from the war, either husbanding his resources,
or perhaps occupied by civil feuds, and left the defence of his outlying
provinces to their respective governors. Mobarsapes, the Adiabenian
monarch, had set his hopes on keeping the invader out of his kingdom by
defending the line of the